French to break deficit promise to EU

EU says France's deficit will climb to 4pc of output this year and remain at
3.9pc in 2015

The French government had promised to keep its deficit beneath the EU's 3pc ceilingPhoto: Alamy

3:56PM GMT 25 Feb 2014

France is set to breach promises to cut its public deficit, according to new figures from the European Union suggesting the country's deficit will remain above the 3pc ceiling in 2014 and 2015.

The EU's winter economic outlook suggested France's deficit will climb to 4pc of output this year and remain at 3.9pc in 2015.

Following the release of public deficit figures last year, the French government had promised to keep its deficit beneath the EU's 3pc ceiling, predicting public spending cuts would keep the deficit beneath 2.8pc for 2015.

Pierre Moscovici, economy minister, maintained that his country is on course: "France has a public finance trajectory that it presented to the European Commission and it is sticking to it."

However, the EU's outlook suggests economic growth in France is set to pick up, reaching 1pc this year and 1.7pc by 2015, in line with economic growth predictions for the rest of the eurozone.